I just had a bot pull it off my Facebook page, and threaten me with being banned. I of course immediately reposted the essential ideas in my own words, and a search string to find the original interview, along with quite a few f bombs.
As I said there, what I don’t get is the level of fear needed to believe that someone with the credentials of a Harvey Risch should be marginalized, attacked, and censored.
Even five years ago I think most people who identified as “liberal” would have found the idea of suppressing actual SCIENCE, as conducted by qualified SCIENTISTS–people with Ph.D’s and long careers in relevant fields–abhorrent.
How has this happened? How has this dark cloud been allowed to descend on all of us with almost no public outcry? Why is the President of Yale not shouting from the rooftops about the cancelling of a talented and intelligent member of his faculty? Why are ALL the Presidents of ALL the Universities not shouting out about academic suppression–SCIENTIFIC suppression–which cannot end well. It never ends well.
Can any actually informed person claim that the idea that “my ideas are better than yours so yours should be suppressed” is new? As I have no doubt pointed out before, the gutters of Constantinople literally ran with blood at times from street battles between factions fighting over the exact interpretation of the Trinity. I don’t remember which side won, but that side made sure that NOBODY was ever allowed to speak the heresy they opposed again, under pain of death.
Was America not FOUNDED precisely to stop all this sort of thing? And leaving legal issues alone, consider the PRINCIPLE of free speech. Free speech is about open debate, which is about the competition of ideas. All the ideas enter the ring, and perform to the ability of their advocates to articulate and reason them. Over time, after going through many trials, some emerge as better than others. This is an EFFICIENT means of identifying and acting on the BEST IDEAS.
Why would we want to get rid of an efficient system? Well, only the CORRUPT benefit from the suppression of free speech. Only people who KNOW they are lying and cheating benefit from the suppression of free speech.
So any AUTHENTIC Liberal has to shout out “even the Nazis and KKK have the right to free speech, even if I hate the motherfuckers.” That’s what I remember Norman Lear saying back in the day. If memory serves, he commented specifically on the (small and poorly attended) neo-Nazi march in Illinois back in I think the 80’s.
I may die in jail. Some nut job may shoot me. But I won’t ever stop doing my best to speak THE truth AS I SEE IT.
Obviously, every person speaking is speaking their truth, but the ones worth listening to–and I strive to be one of those–are speaking a truth YOU CAN SHARE. They are saying things like “you should listen to Harvey Risch, because he is qualified and has something to say worth hearing”. That can easily become OUR truth. There is nothing solipsistic about that. I am saying THIS IS WHAT I BELIEVE AND HERE IS WHY.
And if you think my reasoning is flawed, then in a free market of ideas, you can say so. Maybe my reasoning IS flawed. If you point out where and how I can repair it, and improve it, you are doing me a favor.
Only narcissistic bullies fear criticism. Only narcissistic bullies tie their ideas to their core sense of self, not least because they dont’ HAVE a core sense of self. What they are really tying their ideas to is a role they are playing and very attached to.
I have a post to make on all that, but I’m not yet sure I want to do it today.
But please click on the link. If you don’t have a subscription to Epoch Times, as I say it seems to have been rebroadcast, although I personally choose to subscribe to that publication.